What Remains of Edith Finch

I am 50 years old and I have been playing videos games since the 80s. I have played "What remains of Edith Finch" through twice, once when it came out (2017) and then again years later (2024). It's as if it did not age. It's like a great movie that you watch again and again. This game is a true masterpiece. Despite it's short length, the story and the emotions it leaves with you with stays with you for years. This is one of the best story driven games I have ever played and I have played A LOT. Also the way the story is told and the interface is really innovative and creative 10/10. I will be back in another few years to play it again.

I got so angry at this game. It ended and I shut it down and was so heated about it, I hopped into my discord server and started trashing it.
But then I realized something...well....I realized a lot of things.
It did have an ending. Just not the ending I wanted. It left me with more questions than answers but I soon realized that it was exactly the point of the story. You get more focused on the "what" is happening to this family and not the overall tragedy of this poor girl's existence.
And that is why I got so upset. I got so enveloped and transported to Edith's life that I didn't want to leave it after a few short hours with her.
I want to know more, I want to feel more.
And that is a pure example of how video games are am artform and I am a firm believer that sometimes video games are the best way to tell a story. What Remains Of Edith Finch is a shining example of this case. I strongly don't believe it could get told any other way and capture your emotions better than how it is presented.
I commend the developers for a job well done. It won my heart over. My biggest regret is not playing it sooner. Thank you for the experience.

I got so angry at this game. It ended and I shut it down and was so heated about it, I hopped into my discord server and started trashing it.
But then I realized something...well....I realized a lot of things.
It did have an ending. Just not the ending I wanted. It left me with more questions than answers but I soon realized that it was exactly the point of the story. You get more focused on the "what" is happening to this family and not the overall tragedy of this poor girl's existence.
And that is why I got so upset. I got so enveloped and transported to Edith's life that I didn't want to leave it after a few short hours with her.
I want to know more, I want to feel more.
And that is a pure example of how video games are am artform and I am a firm believer that sometimes video games are the best way to tell a story. What Remains Of Edith Finch is a shining example of this case. I strongly don't believe it could get told any other way and capture your emotions better than how it is presented.
I commend the developers for a job well done. It won my heart over. My biggest regret is not playing it sooner. Thank you for the experience.

I'm unsure how to feel after completing the game. Should I feel content because death is a natural part of life that everyone must confront eventually? Or should I be saddened by its suddenness? Am I now more fearful of my own mortality, or less so? Undoubtedly, the game is a masterpiece in its own right. It has evoked quite a few tears from me.
I will likely spend the entire night now pondering what I witnessed.
MUST PLAY GAME!

Amazing game with an amazing story. Short, it took me 3.5 hours to complete at normal pace. If you ever read the book 100 years of Solitude, well this is story is very similar. If you have not read that book, and did enjoy this game, then get that book and read it.

---{ Graphics }---
☑ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☑ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☑ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Difficulty }---
☑ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☑ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☑ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10

A Haunting Journey Through Family History…
» What Remains of Edith Finch stands tall as one of the finest magical-realism stories in all of video games. A first-person, story-driven experience akin to Gone Home and Firewatch, it tells the incredible, tragic, and constantly surprising multi-generational history of the Finch family. As you explore the gorgeous labyrinthine home, you’ll go on a guided history of each family member, delve into what may or may not be a familial curse, and ultimately learn how each one succumbed to it. Developer Giant Sparrow has once again created something truly remarkable.
Story
» In the two hours it took me to fully explore I ran the emotional gamut from feeling completely devastated to full of an energetic light to annoyed by noticeable performance dips, especially when I approached the house for the first time. The only challenge is finding a way into each locked room of the house, generally through the use of secret passages that make the whole thing exude the charm and imagination of a pop-up book. While exploring the house, the last living member of the Finch family, Edith, narrates stories of the house, her family, and how the incredible lives they lived untimely came to an end.
Gameplay
» While the whole thing is pretty much devoid of any friction preventing you from progressing (there are even fewer puzzles here than in the aforementioned Gone Home), the joy of Edith Finch is in fully immersing yourself in the final moments of each Finch’s life. Once you find a specific memento in each of their rooms, you’re treated to a story of their death, told through fantastical allegories. Each one is presented through a completely different gameplay experience that continually subverted my expectations. With each one, nothing is safe when it comes to the art style, perspective, or gameplay genre. I don’t want to spoil them because I got so much joy out of never knowing where the next memory would take me. Except for one awkward sequence where you control animals from a first-person perspective, there’s a dreamlike nature to the way these sequences not only bend the rules but completely obliterate them.
While each story is ultimately about death, it’s wonderful how full of life every tale is. Even something as heart-wrenching as the death of a child is presented with such exuberant creativity and magic. While experiencing the final moments of their lives is unquestionably tragic, the way they embrace it and welcome whatever might come next fills each story with light. The eccentric family reminded me of The Tenenbaums from Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums or the Glass family from J.D. Salinger’s various works. Learning how they were all related and how the various deaths impacted each surviving member is something that I won’t soon forget.
Environment
» One thing I love about the house itself is how incredibly lived-in it feels. It doesn’t come across as a set designed around the idea of a video game level, but rather a home that a dozen members of an impossibly creative family lived in over several generations. Part of this comes at the cost of interactivity – there’s very little in the house you can touch or manipulate. Like a museum, there’s a “look, but don’t touch” policy here. But honestly, this didn’t bother me given how much I enjoyed the act of meticulously looking at every beautiful detail of the world.
Conclusion
» Though it only took just under two hours to complete, the second the credits stopped rolling I immediately restarted What Remains of Edith Finch. Each of the vignettes is so distinct and surprising that I didn’t have enough time to absorb and dissect what I had just played before being whisked away to the next one. But after fully piecing together the threads of the family and sifting through the allegories of their final moments, I was left with a beautiful, heartbreaking mosaic that exudes life, even when mired in death.
Score: 8.7/10
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